Released Nica Political Prisoners Ache for Those Still in Jail
“I feel guilty for sleeping and eating well.”
Nicaraguan political prisoners recently released and banished to Guatemala live with the pain of knowing that other victims of injustice continue in the terrible condition of the Nicaraguan jails.
HAVANA TIMES – The 135 political prisoners banished to Guatemala on September 5th are currently in a hotel where they enjoy comforts they could barely imagine while in the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship’s jails. Still, some can’t stop feeling guilty for enjoying a soft bed and good food while others remain unjustly imprisoned, enduring the terrible conditions there.
Many of the freed prisoners are receiving psychological support, and now understand that it will be a long time before they can overcome the mix of emotions that keeps them in a state of alert – worried about their family members in Nicaragua, aching for the political prisoners they left behind, and facing anxiety and uncertainty as they look towards a future far from their country.
Gabriela Morales is one of these released and banished prisoners. She was a survivor of the 2018 paramilitary attack on the Divina Misericordia Church in Managua, when she was a student at the Nicaraguan Autonomous National University, and among the protestors who fled to the Church for safety. She thanks God every day for her release from jail, and for the people who made it possible, but her heart aches when she thinks of the prisoners that remained.
“I had hopes that we would all get out, but unfortunately only 135 of us were set free. Mrs. Eveling (Guillen) was left; Nancy Henriquez also, and Mrs. Carmen (Saenz). Because of that, I can’t feel at ease knowing that I’m sleeping in a bed that breathes comfort, while they’re sleeping on a super filthy mattress that even when it’s washed remains dirty. Knowing that I’m eating well, while their food isn’t good or adequate for their health. I feel guilty to be sleeping and eating well,” Morales summed up.
Twenty-seven years old and originally from Managua, Gabriela Morales was freed after spending 12 and a half months in prison. She has already decided to live in the United States, because it’s a country that offers better job opportunities. The entire group is still in the process of arranging their resettlement.
A friend who died after being in prison
Jose Enrique Sanchez, from Masatepe, in the Masaya department, was jailed for participating in the religious events of Holy Week in 2023. He, too, is having problems sleeping at night. Jose confessed that for the first three days of his banishment, he couldn’t shut his eyes, even though he now had a real bed, with clean sheets and a soft mattress, the opposite of the tile floor where he slept for over a year behind bars.
Sanchez’ greatest sorrow after leaving jail was to have confirmed the death of Jose Modesto Solis Aguilar, a political prisoner he met inside, and who was sent home to die in December 2023.
Sanchez stated that he witnessed the seriousness of the illness that Solis suffered and the negligence of the prison authorities, who refused him adequate medical attention.
“He couldn’t hold his urine, and he also soiled himself. He no longer had any control over his body. I helped him eat. More than anything else, more than a friendship, more than a companion in struggle, I ask that Modesto Solis Aguilar not be forgotten. He was a political prisoner who opposed the government since the 80s. He’d always been in the opposition,” Sanchez added.
“I’d like to know what happened in his last days of life. They told me that the Police threatened his whole family, warning them not to reveal how he died, nor even to say he’d been abducted or a political prisoner,” Sanchez stated.
Jose Modesto Solis, 54, was in jail for demanding the freedom of Matagalpa bishop Rolando Alvarez.
Fear and uncertainty
Uncertainty is another emotion that wears on some of the released prisoners. One of those banished to Guatemala, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals against his family in Nicaragua, said he knows and hears repeated daily that they won’t be abandoned in this process. However, he can’t avoid feeling anxious in the face of an uncertain future, a new country, since he’d never thought about living outside of Nicaragua.
Concern for their families is something that all the prisoners are suffering equally. Those interviewed know that all the families of the released prisoners are being watched. Many wonder how they’ll manage to get their children out of the country and reunite with them in exile.
The challenge of returning to “normal life”
Banished opposition member Jasson Salazar declared that the psychological attention he’s received since his release has helped him understand that the change from imprisonment into a new life can’t be taken lightly, nor can he think that everything will be fine from one day to the next.
“For me, these 13 days have been like finding myself again. It’s practically a new beginning, like being reborn; it’s gratifying to reencounter family members, friends, acquaintances, those close to me and loved. I’d also have to recognize that, personally, it’s been a huge convulsion to really learn about everything that’s happened during my 18 months in seclusion, to recognize a new context in Nicaragua that’s still challenging. It’s been like a big explosion within this difficult process of getting myself back on track again,” Salazar stated.
According to those interviewed, the 135 released prisoners are being lodged in different hotels and are not under any pressure or deadline to leave the places where they were received on September 5th. The former prisoners are currently following the steps to complete their resettlement and move on from Guatemala to their next destination, for most of them the United States.
First published in Spanish by La Prensa and Translated and posted in English by Havana Times.